Re: imps2 mouse driver and bug 2082

[Dmitry Torokhov <dtor_core@ameritech.net>]

Hi,

On Sunday 27 March 2005 18:37, Mauro Mozzarelli wrote:
> The mouse driver, re-developed for kernel 2.6, ever since the earliest
> 2.6 release lost the ability to reset a broken link with an IMPS2 mouse
> (this happens when disconnecting the mouse plug either physically or
> through a "non imps2" KVM switch). The result is that the mouse can no
> longer be controlled, with the only solution being a RE-BOOT!
>

You can re-initialize mouse with the following command (while mouse is
connected):

        echo -n "reconnect" > /sys/bus/serio/devices/serioX/drvctl

where serioX is serio port your mouse is connected to. You can find out
which one by examining the driver link:

for i in /sys/bus/serio/devices/*; do echo $i: `cat $i/driver/description`; done

You could map this command to a key - given the fact that in pre-2.6 era
one had to switch from X to text console and back to restore the mouse
having a command mapped to a hot-key should be an acceptable workaround
while we searching for a better solution. 

> This issue has been filed as bug 2082
> (http://bugme.osdl.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2082) . A fix was posted for
> 2.6.8, but this patch never made its way into the kernel main stream.
> "Vojtech", author of the 2.6 mouse driver, keeps modifying his code
> version after version, therefore breaking compatibility with the posted
> patch. I adapted the patch for 2.6.9 and 2.6.10 (there are now three
> versions for 2.6.8, 2.6.9 and 2.6.10). Kernel 2.6.11(.6) was released
> recently, still with the same bug, and would require further adaptation
> of the posted patch.
>

When I wrote the patch I thought it would be ok but now I do not think
that the patch is acceptable - it still allows "junk" data into the
kernel and we should find a way to avoid it.
 
-- 
Dmitry